Rafizi said the Seoul Line 9 MRT project, completed in 2009, cost US$43 million (RM192.6 million) per km, while the Barcelona Sants-La Sagrera MRT project, completed in 2011, cost US$39 million per km.

The RM21 billion price tag for Malaysia’s 51km MRT project meant it would cost US$103 million per km even if the exchange rate was RM4 to the dollar, he said.

“At US$105 million per km, the completed MRT1 project here is 2.5 times more expensive than the MRT projects in Barcelona and Seoul.

“The estimated cost of MRT projects across the world give a picture of the difference between current construction and initial announced figures,” he said in a press conference at Invoke Malaysia headquarters today.

Prior to this, Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) had explained in a statement that it was irrelevant to question the initial RM40 billion cost estimated for the MRT1 project as the figure was drawn upon a concept proposal back in 2010 and based on prices in 2009.

Rafizi disagreed with MRT Corp, saying “the RM40 billion figure is relevant because it must have been made after comparisons with other projects”.

Rafizi said Najib must explain MRT1’s hefty price tag to the people, adding that planners would have taken into account the cost of similar projects across the globe when it was first announced in 2010.

Last week, MRT Corp said the final cost of the whole MRT project had yet to be finalised amid Rafizi’s claim that it would exceed RM100 billion.

Najib has announced that the Sungai-Buloh-Kajang line will cost RM21 billion, and MRT Corp has said the estimated construction cost for the second line, Sungai-Buloh- Serdang- Putrajaya (SSP), is RM32 billion.